Former ITE College East lecturer jailed 4 months for filming up students' skirts on campus

SINGAPORE — After a months-long spree of filming up women’s skirts on the Institute of Technical Education (ITE) College East campus in Simei, a lecturer was nabbed when a student spotted him aiming his mobile phone towards her legs.

He was trying to take upskirt photographs of the victim under the pretext of teaching her something during a class on life skills.

For his actions in 2019, the 48-year-old Singaporean, who is no longer employed at ITE, was jailed for four months on Tuesday (Sept 6).

He pleaded guilty to three counts of insulting a woman’s modesty. Three other similar charges were taken into consideration for sentencing.

While a gag order imposed by the courts — in order to protect the victim's identity — does not cover the man's name, it was not revealed in court documents.

Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Phoebe Tan told the court that the lecturer was teaching a class on Oct 25, 2019 when he spotted the victim wearing a tight skirt.

He then walked towards her, acting as though he was trying to teach her something.

He turned on the camera function of his mobile phone and tried to take upskirt photographs and videos of the victim. This lasted for about one to two minutes before he walked off.

After the class ended, he made sure no one else was around him before taking out his mobile phone to review what he took. That was when he saw that he was unsuccessful.

Unknown to him, the student had spotted him positioning the device near her and had immediately sent phone text messages to her father, sister and classmates. Her sibling notified the police.

Investigations found that the lecturer would look out for female students wearing short skirts or “sitting improperly” in his lectures, DPP Tan told the court.

He also targeted other women around ITE College East.

The court heard that by his estimation, he had taken upskirt photos and videos over a period of four to five months, at a frequency of once every two weeks, before he was arrested.

At least 133 upskirt images and 17 upskirt videos were found on his mobile phone. He had taken upskirt recordings at the cafeteria and general office of ITE College East as well.

On Tuesday, DPP Tan sought four to six months’ jail, noting that the offender had abused his authority and trust as an ITE lecturer and intruded upon his victims’ trust under the guise of teaching them.

In mitigation, his lawyer Sarjit Singh said that a psychiatrist in private practice and another from the Institute of Mental Health both found that the former teacher suffered from a psychiatric disorder that contributed to his offences.

One found that he had an adjustment disorder with depressed mood, while another diagnosed him with a persistent depressive disorder.

Mr Singh told the court that his client has since undergone treatment and the psychiatrists agreed that his risk of offending was “very low”.

The defence counsel from Basant Law Practice added that his client was "not a person deliberately going around taking photos of students".

"This was not his usual behaviour. In fact, some students gave him good reports that he was very friendly and helpful — this is his usual behaviour. This was really out of the norm," Mr Singh said.

Under the Penal Code, those convicted of insulting a woman's modesty can be jailed for up to a year or fined, or be punished with both.